Of Loyalty and Morals
by TatraMegami
Summary: A few years after coming to live in the Naruto alternate universe, it is time for the SG clones to take the Chunin exams. Not only do they have to go through several tests in order to determine their skills to become Chunin, they are also being tested in loyalty and morals as Suna plans an attack on Konoha and the SG clones have to decide whether or not they will participate in it.
1. Planning on Promotion and War

A/N: This is the sequel to Of the Sand, if you haven't read that one, you might want to first to explain this AU. There's been a bit of a timeskip since the end of Of the Sand and this story deals a lot with Naruto Canon (which I don't own), but still has SG1 as the focus.

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Chapter One - Planning on Promotion and War

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Toshiro followed Baki into the inside of the Kazekage's office, blinking when he noticed the other Jounin teachers standing around the office. He spotted Sekka and headed over to where the Medic Nin was standing.

"Do you know what's going on?" Toshiro asked, watching the Kazekage to see if he could figure it out.

"I've got no idea," Sekka answered. "Maybe something to do with the students?"

"It's about time for another Chunin exam," Toshiro mused.

"But why would I be here?" Sekka asked. "The team that I teach at times has already gained Chunin status."

"Well, now's when we'll be told," Toshiro said as the Kazekage finally looked up from his papers.

The room quieted down as they all waited for their leader to speak.

"As some of you might have figured out, it is time for the Chunin exams once more," the Kazekage said. "They will be held in Konoha in a month's time."

Quiet conversations started up, the Jounin teachers murmuring to one another. They all went silent when the Kazekage looked at them.

"I need nominations from people to go with Baki's Genin team," the Kazekage said.

"You mean the team with Gaara?" one of the Jounin teachers asked, his eyes widening.

"I believe that my students could still use some work," another Jounin teacher said.

"My team still hasn't recovered from the last Chunin exam," yet another Jounin teacher spoke up.

"We haven't found a decent replacement for my student who passed on the last exam," the last Jounin teacher spoke up.

"Then you are all dismissed, except for Baki, Toshiro, and Sekka," the Kazekage said.

The Jounin teachers all bowed and left the room, leaving behind the three who had been specified. Sekka shuffled a little, but the other two didn't react at all and stood there in silence.

"Toshiro," the Kazekage said. "Are your teams ready for the Chunin exam?"

"The joint team between me and Sekka, consisting of George Hammond, Janet Fraiser, and Teal'c, has already passed - as you know, Kazekage," Toshiro answered as he analyzed his students. "Team two, consisting of Samantha Carter, Cameron Mitchell, and Jonas Quinn, failed the last exam, but I do believe that they are ready to try again."

"And your last team?" the Kazekage asked.

"The team consisting of Jack O'Neill, Daniel Jackson, and Vala Mal Doran," Toshiro acknowledged. "As you know, they did not attend the last exam since the two Genin were underage from the average Chunin. But, given how you are sending Gaara along with Baki's team, I do believe that they are ready to attempt the Chunin exam."

"Very well, we will be sending all three of your teams along with Baki's team," the Kazekage said.

"May I ask why team Sekka is attending, given how they are already Chunin?" Toshiro asked.

"I have gotten an offer," the Kazekage said instead of answering.

"An offer?" Toshiro asked when Baki didn't say anything. It honestly didn't surprise him that Baki already knew about whatever the Kazekage was planning. Baki was one of the Kazekage's advisers; therefore he knew a lot of privileged information.

"Orochimaru has created a village of his own, the Hidden Village of Sound," the Kazekage answered. "He wishes to go to war with Konoha and he asked for our alliance."

"What could be gained from attacking Konoha?" Toshiro asked. Yes, they didn't really get along with the other ninja village, but ninja villages were just like that. Each village played things close to their vests, hiding all of their secrets and keeping them from the other villages.

"There's much to be gained from attacking Konoha," the Kazekage said. "But, only if we can truly pull the attack off."

"Then why?" Toshiro asked, trailing off since he really didn't want to question his leader.

"Orochimaru has informed me of a group that would wish to harm my son," the Kazekage said. "And while I might have had a certain opinion of my son years ago, I do not wish him to be killed by a group plotting to kill all of the Bijou. Orochimaru has promised Gaara's safety if we cooperate."

"Do you really believe him?" Toshiro asked, thinking back on the rumors that went around about Orochimaru.

"In a sense I believe that your students were a good influence on Gaara; it certainly helped with our decreasing population," the Kazekage said. "Yet, at the same time, it has decreased his defense instinct. I feel that it is possible for Gaara to be in trouble."

"He has done well so far," Baki offered.

"True and I do not trust Orochimaru," the Kazekage said. "But I feel that it's best to follow along with his plans until he does something to break the truce."

"I suppose that it makes sense," Toshiro said. "It's not as though we can just hide away and it would be equally as foolish to out and out refuse someone like Orochimaru."

"Good, so you understand our position," the Kazekage said. "Now, about your students. Would they be willing to go along with an attack such as this?"

"They aren't from Suna," Toshiro acknowledged. "But they have come to see Suna as their home. They have very different ideas on how the world should work, but I am sure that they will see reason. I think, at the worst, they would not act against us."

"Very well," the Kazekage said. "Team Baki and Teams Toshiro will attend the Chunin exam and team Sekka will go along as an escort. The more people we have attending, the better our information will be."

"Would you like Team two to investigate?" Toshiro asked. "Or, rather, report back to me on their investigations?"

"Your little spies," the Kazekage said, a corner of his mouth lifting up in amusement. "Very well, have them report back on all that they discover when they reach the city."

"And I will report back to you, Kazekage," Toshiro said as he bowed.

"Inform your students that you leave in a week," the Kazekage ordered.

"Very well," Toshiro said. He gave a quick bow and left the room, Sekka right after him.

"That went well," Baki said after the door had been closed.

"Better than I thought that it would," the Kazekage said. "How do you think that they will do?"

"Your children are the best at what they do," Baki said, speaking the simple truth. "Gaara and Temari have a chance of passing if the exams are not interrupted."

"And my first son?" the Kazekage asked.

"Kankuro," Baki paused as he thought of the right words. "He is not as motivated as his other siblings. If he knows of the possibility of war, he will not try in order to save his strength and he would not pass."

"If the Chunin exam is not interrupted," the Kazekage said with a sigh. "And the other teams?"

"The blonde girl is still preoccupied with her gadgets," Baki reported. "But they are now determined to do better on their next exam."

"Yes, that was a bit of a spectacular failure," the Kazekage said, shaking his head.

"Some of her devices do work," Baki pointed out.

"And Toshiro's other team?" the Kazekage asked.

"It would not surprise me if they all either made it through or they all failed spectacularly," Baki said.

"Even worse than the exploding gun?" the Kazekage asked.

"Between Vala Mal Doran, Daniel Jackson, and Jack O'Neill?" Baki said, raising his eyebrow. "We'll be lucky if Konoha is still standing, let alone the stadium."

"I'm just glad that we found them first," the Kazekage said. "After seeing half of the things that they have come up with, I am happy to have them on our side."

"I believe that everyone is glad of that," Baki said. The subject of the Genin was dropped as more serious matters started up as they planned for war.


	2. A Week to Decide

A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing!

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Chapter 2 - A Week to Decide

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"So, what do you think the meeting's about?" Jack asked as they walked to their usual training ground.

"The Chunin exams," Vala chirped out, as though Jack should already know about them.

"So soon?" Jack asked.

"It's about that time," Vala answered. "Do you think that this time we'll be able to go?"

"Well, we have been getting C rank missions," Jack mused. "And Temari's team has already gotten several B rank missions."

"It's so not fair that the others got to go when we couldn't," Vala grumbled. "I bet that we could have passed."

"Carter's team didn't pass," Jack pointed out.

"That's because she was still working out the kinks on her toys," Vala said in dismissal. "We wouldn't have needed them."

"I liked having the extra time," Daniel said.

"Yes, yes, we know that you were busy swallowing the whole library six months ago," Vala replied. "But, you could have put that off while we aced the Chunin exam."

"There's a good chance that we're actually going to go this time around," Daniel said. "Gaara's team is participating this year."

"Where do you guys get this information?" Jack asked as he shook his head.

"Like you don't have your own spy network," Daniel scoffed. "Besides, Baki told Gaara and his team yesterday that they were being entered in the Chunin exams. There's something else going on, but our Sensei wants to tell us himself."

"They're preparing to attack some place," Vala said.

"Yeah, I've been noticing that," Jack replied. "Chances are that it's where we're going for the Chunin exam, but I don't know why just yet."

"Ah, there's my little spy team," Toshiro said as he spotted them.

"Reconnaissance team," Vala corrected.

Jack was only faintly surprised to see Carter's team already there and waiting, but he was surprised to find Hammond's team also there. "Hey kids, General," Jack said, giving everyone a nod.

"General," Hammond nodded in reply. The others greeted them in turns.

Toshiro didn't bat an eyelid over their greetings; he had gotten used to the strange nicknames that they had for one another. He had once brought up the possibility of their fighting before, after seeing how much they could already do and hearing that they didn't have ninjas in their village. After a silent conversation Jack replied that their town had a militia, where even the kids learned some of the trade.

"Okay, now that you're all here," Toshiro said, clapping his hands to get their attention.

"It was Daniel's fault," Vala said.

"What?" Daniel protested.

"We did have to drag you away from your rocks, Danny-boy," Jack said.

"Artifacts; scrolls, in fact," Daniel replied. "And I only lost track of time for a little bit."

"In any case," Toshiro said, rolling his eyes at the standard excuse for the lateness of his second team. "As no doubt you're aware, the Chunin exams are coming up."

"So who's nominated?" Vala asked.

"You are all nominated," Toshiro answered.

"Yes," Vala exclaimed, pumping her fist.

"And Team Sekka will be going along as an escort," Toshiro continued, acting like Vala wasn't performing a victory dance.

"Where is the Chunin exam being held?" Sam asked. "The last time we took the exams we didn't have a Chunin escort."

"The exams are going to be held in Konoha," Toshiro said. "And I won't lie to you: the Kazekage's planning on the possibility of attacking the village."

"Why?" George asked.

"I thought that we had a good relation with Konoha," Jack said.

"Some new information has come to light and the Kazekage feels like it would be a good idea to follow along with the possibility of an attack and maybe to actually go through with this attack," Toshiro said. "Now, I assured him that you would be willing to attack for Suna's sake, did I tell the Kazekage the truth?"

"I'd feel a lot more comfortable with this if I had some more information," George said.

"Yeah, especially about Konoha," Jack said. "And are we going after the ninja or are we involving the civilians as well?"

"I cannot say for sure what the Oto Nins plan on doing, but of course we would only be providing support and thereby only attacking the ninja of the village," Toshiro said. "Most likely your roles in the attack will be to keep the other Genin in the Chunin exam busy."

"Is that why Gaara's being sent along?" Daniel asked, staring at Toshiro.

"Gaara is being sent along because Konoha would never suspect the Kazekage to try something with his own son in harm's way," Toshiro answered. "The Shinobi way can be like that sometimes. Yet, the Kazekage is also confident in his children and their abilities. Just as I am with the nine of you."

"We'll have to think this through," George said.

"Can we still attend even if we don't take part in the attack?" Vala asked.

"You'd be in danger," Toshiro replied and refused to say anything more about that.

"So it's all or nothing," Jack said. He shrugged. "Normal life, I guess."

"If you do attend, it will have to be under aliases," Toshiro reminded. "Do you six still remember yours?"

"Yes," George answered for the group.

"And the rest of you will have to come up with your own names," Toshiro said. "We have a week until we have to leave; I'll need your names and whether or not you are willing to attend before that."

"We'll get back to you," Jack said.

Toshiro nodded and left the training field. The nine made sure that the field was clear of any sort of spies before they started talking.

"So, Daniel, what's Konoha like?" Jack asked, turning to their resident expert in culture.

"You have read about it, haven't you, Dr. Jackson?" George asked.

"He should have," Vala said. "I mean, he's read through the whole library.

"I have read some things, yes," Daniel said.

"So have I," Jonas offered. "Though, I mostly read up on Iwa in preparation of our exam; Konoha came up in my research."

"Why's that?" Jack asked.

"Because Iwa and Konoha warred a generation ago, so they aren't in that great a standing with one another," Jonas reported. "Although, Kumo has been at odds with them more recently. But, that was why Konoha didn't show up for our Chunin exam."

"Konoha's known as being the straight up ninja village, at least compared to the other ninja villages," Daniel took over. "Known as the Village Hidden in the Leaves, it's been known as relatively peaceful after the Third Great Shinobi War, the conflict that Iwa was involved in. It's one of the most powerful villages in existence and has great military power and influence."

"Which could be a reason why they would want to take it down," Jack said.

"What about these Oto Nins that Toshiro mentioned?" George asked.

"They're new," Daniel said. "There's nothing in the library about what I assume would be the Village Hidden in the Sound. All mentions of them that I have found have been through the latest reports."

"Oh, the one created by the snaky guy?" Vala asked.

"What snake?" Jack asked as everyone's attention focused on Vala.

"Orochimaru, who is known as the Snake Sannin," Vala answered. "He used to be from Konoha, and wanted to be the leader of the place, but someone else was chosen for the job. He went a bit crazy and started experimenting on people, so he was kicked out of Konoha."

"And that would be the other reason to attack Konoha," Jack said.

"Do we want to know what type of experiments he did?" Jonas asked.

Vala shook her head. "It's been said that he experimented on children."

"And that's the guy we're allied with?" Jack asked, just barely biting back a curse.

"Sensei Toshiro did say that they were only following along, presumably to placate this man," Teal'c said.

"And he was careful to only hint to the possibility of an attack," George agreed.

"I still don't like this," Jack said.

"On the one hand, we did promise to serve Suna when we became Genin. On the other hand, I really don't like attacking another country without knowing everything," George said.

"I say we go there and we gather the information that we need," Vala said. "Not just about Konoha, but also about this Snake guy. We think that he sounds like trouble, let's find out about this trouble before it bites us in the butt."

"You just want to become a Chunin," Daniel pointed out.

"But that doesn't mean that it's a good idea," Jack said. "We can always pull out if needed."

"So you've made your decision?" Temari asked as she and her brothers approached.

"How long have you been listening?" Jack asked.

"Since we checked the area for spies," Vala answered.

"Vala, you're supposed to warn us when that happens, even with allies," Jack scolded.

"It's not like we wouldn't be telling them all of this stuff anyway," Vala replied. "This way we don't have to repeat anything."

"I'm glad that you're going," Temari said.

"What do you think of all of this?" Jack asked.

"I want what's best for Suna," Temari answered, like Jack knew that she would. "If Father thinks that attacking Konoha is good for Suna, then of course I think that it is a good idea."

"And your real opinions?" Jack asked, giving her a look.

"I think that you are right in investigating the whole thing," Temari said. "This Snake man does not sound like a man to trust. Let me know if your team needs any help."

"Will do," Jack replied.

"So, now that everything's decided, we need to come up with names," Vala cheered.

"I don't get why we can't just use our own names," Jack grumbled.

"Because we need to fit in," Sam said. "We got lucky that Suna didn't worry too much about our names, but questions will come up if Suna's people have strange names."

"I want to be Yua," Vala said.

"To bind combined with affection," Daniel translated.

"It reminds me of our first meeting," Vala said. She grinned at Daniel and threw her arm around his shoulder. "And our second, as well."

"Yeah, a lot of our meetings were like that," Daniel said as he detached her arm.

"You can be Akio," Vala replied.

"Bright combined with husband, man, or hero?" Daniel asked.

"Fits you perfect, Danny-boy," Jack said, ruffling Daniel's hair.

"And you can be Yuuta," Vala decided.

"Gentleness, superiority or distant, leisurely combined with a reference to the stars, a person, or the sky," Daniel translated.

"And the others already have their aliases," Vala said.

"First name is Sora and last name is Taji," Sam said. "Meaning sky and silver and yellow color."

"First name, Akane, meaning deep red and last name is Danno, meaning field worker," Janet said.

"Shou, meaning to fly and Honda meaning one from the base of the fields." Cam grinned. "You can really tell just who the pilots around here are."

"Makoto, meaning sincerity," Jonas said. "My last name's also Taji, the same as Sam's."

"Isamu, meaning courage or bravery and Danno as well," George added his own name to the mix.

"Takeshi, meaning military or warrior," Teal'c intoned. He had declined not to take a last name and had managed to make it through the exams without an issue.

"Now all that's left is to decide on our last names," Vala said.

"Daniel and I are Hondas, just like Cam," Jack said, deciding on continuing the story that they were all brothers.

"I think I'll take Teal'c last name," Vala said after some thought. "If I take Honda as my name, then I won't be able to hit on Daniel and that would make me sad."

"Teal'c doesn't have a last name," Gaara pointed out.

"Exactly," Vala said.

"But you'll keep on saying that you have his last name anyway," Jack said, shaking his head. "Why did I have to be stuck with the crazy team?"

"Because you're just as insane," Vala answered.

"That's from having to deal with all of you," Jack said.

"So you're in for the Chunin exam," Temari said, bringing the conversation back on target. "Don't think that we'll go easy on you just because you're our friends."

"I wouldn't count on it," Jack replied. "Because we're going to be the ones to overtake you and become Chunin."

"See, I knew you wanted to be Chunin just as much as I did," Vala said, sticking her tongue out at Jack.

"Whatever will get us to more interesting missions," Jack replied. "I never viewed a soldier's duty as doing someone else's chores. At least the things that I did before becoming an officer had a point."

"Well, there is a point to doing the D Ranks," Daniel said. "For one, it earns Suna money and reassures the citizens that they are not breeding a force of killer children, and for the other, they do help Genin learn how to do missions before they become too dangerous."

"The opposite approach to throwing people off the deep end?" Jack asked.

"Exactly," Daniel said. "It's a lot like some of the training exercises that we use for the new recruits."

"More like milk runs, I think," Jack replied. "Since we're actually doing the missions and it can fail, like the time we almost lost Daniel in the sand."

"I was perfectly fine," Daniel said, coming close to pouting at Jack. "I just wanted to look at the walls of the ruins."

"Yeah, I suppose that at least you weren't dragged off again," Jack joked.

"You know, one of these days you are going to tell us just what you guys are talking about," Temari said.

"It's obvious," Kankuro said, giving his sister a lazy look.

"Oh?" Temari asked, raising her eyebrow at him.

"They're all insane," Kankuro answered. "And they're simply talking about what things are like in their fantasy world."

"We're just a long way from home," Daniel said before Temari could hit her brother.

"You knew that from the first time you talked to us," Jack said. He shrugged. "But don't worry about Kankuro; it's just time for his nap."

"I don't need a nap," Kankuro said with a scowl. "I just don't think that you guys are telling us everything."

"And we aren't," Jack answered. "But then, we still don't know everything about you guys after all of these years."

"But, we're willing to give you an insider's look into the Chunin exams," Sam said, leaning forward to catch the siblings' attention. "After all, we participated in an exam once before."

"They haven't," Kankuro said, pointing at Jack and his team. "And besides, you guys failed."

"But we haven't," George said. "Would you like me to walk you through it?"

"I guess so," Kankuro replied, still sounding reluctant.

"I'm not going to lose the exam," Gaara said. "Therefore, you're not allowed to fail until the team part of it stops, Kankuro."

"Gaara," Jack groaned out. "Remember what I've always told you?"

"Never leave anyone behind," Gaara replied. "All right, then, you're not allowed to fail, Kankuro."

"Sometimes you might not have a choice in whether you pass or not," Sam cautioned.

"Speak for yourself," Cam said. "You're the one who was too focused on other things to win the Chunin exam."

"Hey, I got a gun working," Sam replied.

"It exploded in the guy's face," Cam pointed out.

"And it distracted him long enough for me to knock him out," Sam said. "Besides, my new designs are a lot more stable."

"Are you sure that you should be using guns on these people, Carter?" Jack asked.

"I'm only making stun guns only, sir," Sam replied. She pulled out her latest project out of her holster and kept it pointing to the ground as she pointed out everything. "I used the ancient crystals that I found in the cavern to power the weapon but, because I really can only fit a couple of the crystals in the gun, I can't get much of a charge. Therefore, I'm only giving them a light shock."

"But still, guns," Jack said, shaking his head. "Sooner or later someone's going to want you to create some for mass market."

Sam nodded in agreement. "It's a good thing that we just don't have the supply that we would have elsewhere. I'm working on finding a stronger energy source for the guns, for when we start going on the harder missions."

"Just be careful," Jack said. He stood up. "Shall I tell Toshiro that we're going to go take the exams?"

"I'll come with you," Vala said as she bounced up to her feet. "I've got to get started on my research."

"Would you like to help me in the library?" Daniel asked Gaara as the rest of the group got up.

"What are you looking for?" Gaara asked as he followed after Daniel.

"Looking up some more things on Konoha," Daniel said.

"I suppose I'll help out, then," Gaara replied. "At least it's not ancient history."

"History is fascinating," Daniel started to lecture as he led Gaara way.

"I halfway think that Daniel just brings Gaara along so that no one looks over his shoulder," Vala said in the silence the two left behind.

"As long as it keeps both of them out of trouble," Temari said with a shrug. "But what's going to keep you out of trouble, girl?"

"I can keep my own self out of trouble," Vala replied with a smirk.

"Right, that's why you came to us before," Cam said.

"I came to you guys because that's where the treasure was," Vala replied. "I stayed because it was fun."

"And it continues to be fun," Jack said. "While you continue to get into trouble."

"Well, then, let's get into trouble," Vala replied as she walked away.

Jack shook his head and followed after her. She disappeared once they reached the base, off to dig into as much secret reports as she could. Jack shook his head, but left her too it as we went down and informed Toshiro of their decision. They were going to the Chunin exams.


	3. On the Way to Konoha

A/N: More fun stuff. Thanks for reading and reviewing!

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Chapter 3: On the Way to Konoha

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The four teams divided their time in the week before they left in two ways; they focused on finding out more about Konoha, Orochimaru and his Otokagure, and on training for the exams. Everything that Suna's intelligence knew, Vala knew as well and Daniel scoured the library in search of mentions of Konoha. They were still glad when they started off to their destination, knowing that they could only gather so much information away from the source. Though they probably couldn't gain as much information about Otokagure in Konoha, they still had a good chance in finding out something.

As always, the nine dimensional travelers enjoyed seeing more of the world that they found themselves on. It wasn't the first time that they had left Suna, having gone on missions before, but this was a new direction for most of the group. Team Sekka and Team Toshiro one had traveled the furthest of the nine, as Iwa was rather far away, but Team Toshiro two had also traveled far for the same amount of time.

Konoha reminded Jack a lot of America and all of the other tree filled planets that they had gone to. There were a lot of trees in the Fire Country, tall, thick trees that had to be centuries old. Their joining Suna was completely by chance, but it was for a good reason. Yes, Jack would have preferred to live somewhere like in the Fire Country, as much as he complained about the view, he always did prefer trees over sand, but the people were good in Suna. Oh, not the politicians, Jack thought that the Kazekage was a bit of an ass, but people like Temari and Gaara and Toshiro were the reason why they decided to stay in Suna. Jack wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Daniel sneezed the whole way to Konoha before the antihistamines kicked in. "It's just like old times," Jack commented.

"Oh, sure, I love to sneeze my brains out," Daniel dryly commented before sneezing once more.

"You were right, this is amusing," Vala said as she watched Daniel intently. She still managed to leap from tree to tree while doing so, which halfway amazed Jack. But then, Vala had taken to Chakra manipulation like duck to water.

Daniel also was managing somehow to travel by tree and not to kill himself. That was mostly because Jack traveled right next to him and kept him from slipping and killing himself. All of the Suna born refused to travel by tree, but Jack's team especially made use of the large branches.

"I don't see how you three can stand it," Temari commented one day when they paused for a meal.

"Stand what?" Jack asked. He jerked a thumb towards Daniel. "If you mean Danny's sneezing, we got used to that years ago."

"No, I mean traveling by tree," Temari said. "Instead of going by solid ground."

"Trust me, it's something that I normally wouldn't have considered, but it's a good thing to do with trees like this," Jack answered. "Less things to disturb on a tree branch, so it's harder to track."

"They got Tomo to take you guys on during the last Chunin exam, didn't they?" Toshiro said with a groan.

"Yep, though Vala knew her from before all of that," Jack replied.

"Well, that explains some things," Toshiro said.

"Who's Tomo?" Kankuro asked.

"She's the head of Intelligence," Toshiro answered. "And normally she's not allowed to be in charge of Genin."

"Why's that?" Temari asked.

"She's a little," Sekka started and then hesitated.

"Unstable," a new voice broke in. A woman with dark brown hair stepped into view. "Really, and you call yourselves Shinobi."

"I was waiting for you to decide to show yourself," Jack said.

"Give you time for a dramatic entrance," Daniel added.

"Does this mean that we can be Team Tomo?" Vala asked.

"What the hell is going on here?" Kankuro complained.

"The Kazekage sent me out to gather some information and, if you'll agree to it, I'll head into the village with you guys and use you as a cover," the woman, Tomo, explained. "Your second team and I get along pretty well."

"I suppose so," Toshiro answered, blinking at the woman.

"Great, because I already sent in the paperwork with my name instead of yours on those three," Tomo said. She looked around and the rest of the kids and grinned at them. "Hey, I'm Tomo and I'm just here to pretend to be those three's teacher. And to actually torment them."

"Just don't let her make the cooking fire," Jack said. "Or you're liable to have the whole clearing set on fire."

"Oh, you know I only did that as a training exercise," Tomo said.

"A training exercise in what?" Sam asked.

"Fire safety," Tomo replied.

"Well, let's get moving before we lose the light," Toshiro said.

They all got up, put away their food supplies and took off. Tomo and the three claimed as her team took to the trees as the other three teams ran along the ground. It took them almost a full week to get to Konoha, they made good speed when they moved, but since they still had time before the start of the exams, they paused to train. Tomo seemed to think that attacking her students whenever she felt bored was acceptable and soon that moved to a whole game of tag that everyone was playing. It took the place of training as they got closer to Konoha and closer to the possibility of lookouts for Konoha.

They arrived at Konoha a week before the exams were supposed to start. The students were cleared at the gates, but the Jounin teachers had to go do some paperwork.

"Why don't you guys just go wander around, we'll find you when we have everything set," Tomo said, giving them a grin. Vala grinned in reply and the others could tell just what they were thinking of.

"Just stay out of trouble if you can," Toshiro warned. "Remember, it's a bad idea to pick a fight before the exams start."

"Right; we'll make sure that they're kept out of trouble," George said.

"Indeed," Teal'c said, though there was a hint of a smirk on his face.

"Don't worry, we'll behave ourselves," Jack said. "After all, we're just peaceful explorers, what could go wrong?"

Snickers broke out among the other members of SG1, remembering plenty of times where they as 'peaceful explorers' got into trouble. Toshiro just rolled his eyes and motioned for the Konoha guards to lead them away.

"So, where should we go now?" Cam asked.

"We're being watched, so it's probably a good idea just to wander around the place like we said that we would," Vala said. "We can go and do the fun stuff later on."

"This place is just as weird as everywhere else," Jack said as he looked up at all of the buildings with their colorful roofs. "And look, Mount Rushmore."

"That's the Hokage Monument," Daniel corrected. "All of the Hokages from the first one to the fourth one. Interestingly enough, the third Hokage is the current Hokage, as the Fourth died in the Kyuubi attack."

"Fascinating, Daniel," Jack said, rolling his eyes.

"Akio," Daniel reminded.

"Bless you," Jack replied.

"Let's split up," Vala said. "We'll go that way, Team Toshiro will go that way and Team Sekka can go that way."

"And what about us?" Temari asked.

"You can follow whoever you want or make your own way," Vala said with a shrug. "I know you've got your own ways of scoping things out."

"I want to go check out the training areas," Temari said. "We can't go too deep into them, or else they'll notice that we're spying, but it'll be idiotic not to try and look at some of them training."

"That's this way," Daniel pointed in the direction that Team Tomo was going to go in.

Everyone paused and looked at Daniel. "How do you know that?" Temari asked.

"I looked at the maps of Konoha," Daniel said with a shrug. "Jonas also looked at them, which means that he also knows where things are in this village."

"Team Tomo will be checking out some of the training areas, Team Toshiro will be looking through mostly residential areas, and Team Sekka will be checking out the hospital along with the Hokage tower," Jonas listed.

"We figured that you'd be able to make it around without someone who knows the map," Daniel told George. "Since it's mostly just the markets and the shops."

"Understandable," George said with a nod.

"Then let's move out," Jack said.

With that, the group split up into threes, each heading into a different area of the city. Jack kept an eye on their guards, waiting to see what they were going to do, but they only split up as well.

They wandered through the town, mostly offshoots of the residential area and the business district. They had to angle deeper into the city before they would get to the training areas that the other Genin would be more likely to use. Gaara and Vala disappeared at some point. Jack knew that Vala was trying to see whether or not she could get the guards confused or if she could get them to play a game with her, but he wasn't exactly sure just where Gaara disappeared off to. But then, that was Gaara for you, the most unpredictable ninja out there. Temari just rolled her eyes when she noticed that her brother and Vala were gone and Daniel pouted at being left behind.

They were just walking along an area that was largely fenced off when a kid came screaming around the corner and ran into Kankuro. "Hey," Kankuro protested as he grabbed a hold of the kid.

"Is everything all right?" Jack asked, looking around and slipping his hand into his weapons pouch just in case there was an attack.

Several other kids came running around the corner and they stopped in surprise when they saw the group from Suna.

"Hey, let go of him," a blond haired boy shouted out, pointing at Kankuro.

"Or what?" Kankuro asked. "The kid bumped into me."

"Look, it was my fault," a girl with pink hair said, giving Kankuro a quick bow. "I was chasing after him and he wasn't looking where he was going."

"I don't like brats," Kankuro said, hefting the kid up by his scarf.

"Let go of me," the so called brat shouted out.

"You heard him, let him go," the blond shouted. He ran straight at Kankuro, intending on attacking him.

"Hey, remember what Toshiro said," Jack said as he stepped in the blond kid's way. "We're not supposed to get in a fight just yet."

"I doubt that we'll get in trouble for beating up a couple of snot nosed brats," Kankuro grumbled.

"Let the kid go," Jack said.

"Come on, Kankuro," Temari said with a sigh.

"You always side with him," Kankuro said. He not too gently dumped the kid onto the ground and glared down at him. "You'd better run, brat."

The kid scrambled up and did run, coming to a stop behind the blond kid. "Beat him up, Ni-san!"

"No one's going to be beating anyone up," Jack said, rolling his eyes.

"My Ni-san will totally beat you up," the brat called out, pointing at Jack now. "You're just scared."

"I'm not scared, we're just not here to get into trouble," Jack said.

"Peaceful explorers," Daniel murmured, barely loud enough for Jack to hear.

A rock sailed through the air, and Jack snatched it out of the air before it could hit him. "Hey, who's throwing rocks?"

"You're not from Konoha," someone said from behind them. The Suna group turned to see a brunet sitting in a tree, staring down at them. The kid had a rock in his hand and he crushed it to gravel. "What are you doing here?"

"He's right, you're not from Konoha," the pink haired girl gasped out. "You're not supposed to be here."

"We are supposed to be here, kid," Jack replied. "And what in heaven's name were you thinking throwing a rock at me?"

"Throwing rocks isn't nice," Gaara spoke up. Everyone's eyes turned to find the red head standing upside down on a tree branch in the same tree that the brunet was sitting in. The brunet paled, obviously not knowing that the red head was near him.

"And you say that we're insane," Jack muttered to Kankuro.

"Gaara," Kankuro groaned out. "Did you have to pick up their germs?"

"What germs?" Vala asked dropping down onto the wooden fence. "And you totally just ruined Gaara's dramatic entrance, you doofus."

"Don't call me a doofus," Kankuro snapped back.

"Then quit acting like a doofus," Vala replied.

"All right, everyone, just calm down," Jack said. "And get down onto solid ground."

"You know, Kankuro's got a point," Temari said as she stared up at Gaara. "He would have never have thought about doing that until you guys insisted by traveling by tree."

"What's wrong with traveling by tree?" the blond haired boy called out.

"There's nothing wrong with traveling by tree," Vala said. "She just doesn't like heights."

"Get down off the fence, will you?" Jack told her.

Vala rolled her eyes and dropped down off of the fence. Gaara flipped out of the tree and landed neatly next to the tree. The brunet leaped out of the tree and landed near the Konoha group. Jack rolled his eyes at them all.

"That's better," Temari said. "Now, can we behave like rational people?"

"What are you doing here in Konoha?" the pink haired girl asked.

"We're peaceful explorers ad they let us in," Jack said, jerking his finger at around where he guessed that the village gates were at.

"Don't worry, we're being watched by at least five people by now," Vala said.

"I thought it was just one before," Daniel replied.

"It's five now," Vala said with a grin.

"You two are impossible," Jack said. He ran a hand through his hair. "Am I going grey just yet?"

"Oh, you held out for a while the last time around," Daniel joked.

"Anyway, kids," Jack said, focusing back on the Konoha group. "We're here for a reason and we've got five people watching to make sure that we don't go crazy, so there's no need to attack us." Jack tossed the rock back at the brunet, where it fell short and skittered across the sidewalk until it came to a stop next to the boy's foot. "Next time take a look around before throwing things at people; don't you know the nursery rhyme?"

"Come on, let's go," Temari said as she walked right past the Konoha group. Kankuro glared at the brat, but he followed after his sister with his brother right behind him. Jack waited until Vala and Daniel followed before he moved, keeping a wary on all of the teens until they were far enough behind them.

"Rookies," Vala decided. "We'll probably have to face them in the exams, which they don't know about, by the way."

"How do you think?" Jack asked.

"You're a rookie as well," Kankuro pointed out at the same time.

"And technically, so are you," Vala replied. "Besides, the only reason that we weren't allowed to go was because they were still sore at us for having a bit of fun."

"You broke into the museum and stole several pieces," Kankuro said.

"As I said," Vala replied. "They were still sore at us for having a bit of fun."

"I can't believe that you got Daniel to go along with you in that stunt," Jack said as he shook his head.

"You were caught with them," Temari pointed out.

"I was making sure that they didn't get into any trouble," Jack replied.

"You helped them break into the museum," Temari said.

"Any more trouble," Jack corrected himself with a shrug.

"Hey, it was a good idea at the time and we had no idea that they were making their decisions about who to send to the Chunin exams around then," Vala said with a shrug.

"Besides, after Carter's team washed out, I don't think we missed all that much," Jack said with a shrug.

"You know, I think Kankuro might have a point in insisting that you're insane," Temari said.

"Of course I'm right," Kankuro said.

"I don't care," Gaara said. "Insane or not, they're my friends."

"That's the spirit," Vala cheered.

"Okay, to get back on track, why do you think that they'll be in the Chunin exams?" Jack asked. "I mean, I agree in them being rookie Genin, as they had on Hitai-ate and were clearly full of themselves, but rookies generally aren't entered into the Chunin exam."

"Ah, but they're Konoha rookie Genin," Vala pointed out as she held up a finger. "They've already got a home advantage, so that's one less danger and the brunet especially looks full of himself enough that he'll be sent in."

"Hopefully to knock him down a peg or two," Jack muttered.

"You'd think that they'd know about the exam if they were going to be entered into it," Kankuro said.

"As I've said, they're rookie Genin and not all rookie Genin can be as awesome as I am," Vala said.

"You didn't know about the existence of the Chunin exams before your little bit of breaking and entering," Kankuro replied.

"That's because I thought that they had already decided," Vala said.

"And apparently they changed their minds on us," Daniel said with a shrug. "Who would have thought?"

"I still can't believe how far you've fallen, Daniel," Jack said as he shook his head.

"Akio," Daniel corrected with a sigh. "And I was checking to the store rooms before the museum closed, you're the one who actually broke in with her."

"Oh yeah, she insisted that you were locked in," Jack remembered. "And that was very like you, Akio."

"I don't think you guys would have passed the Chunin exams anyway," Kankuro muttered.

"But we'll beat this exam," Vala cheered before she bounced off. The rest of the group sighed and followed after her.

In the week that followed before the exam started, they explored the whole town from front to back. They spent the daytime wandering through the town, pretending to basically be tourists and at night they sneaked out one or two at a time and investigated that way as well.

Daniel wandered into the library during the second day that they were there and convinced the librarian to give him several books. His guard insisted on being in the room with him whenever he visited the library, but Daniel took care to only get books through the librarian. He knew from Suna's library how territorial the buildings were when it came to secrets, but even the books that he was allowed to read had more information than the books found in Suna's library. And, as always, Gaara hung out with Daniel as he read, keeping away any busy bodies who didn't want to chance Gaara's long stare.

Vala was particularly busy trying to gain entrance into the intelligence center. She spent long hours with Tomo casing the joint and figuring out their plans to get inside. Vala was also plotting to do the same thing for getting into the Hokage tower. She had yet to pull anything off, however, as Konoha had been understandably upping their security.

Still, they had gathered just enough information before the start of the exams to increase their distrust in Orochimaru and their dislike for the planned attack. They didn't say anything to Toshiro outside of passing him a report of the things that they had found out during the week in Konoha. Tomo, of course, was given a more extensive report. The teens got confirmation that the adults of Suna didn't like the plan as much as they did when Toshiro sent one of his summoned hawks off to report to the Kazekage.

The three groups didn't have time to wait, however, as the day of the first Chunin exam dawned.


	4. The First Test

A/N: This is one of my favorite chapters, mainly cuz there's a mistake in word choice that I couldn't bring myself to correct. It's not a big thing, but feel free to try and find it ;)

* * *

Chapter 4: The First Test

* * *

"Why are we being sent to their academy building?" Kankuro grumbled as the Suna group made their way to where the officials had said that the first Chunin exam test was to be held.

"Probably because of all of the rookie Genin," Vala said. "And I'd bet that this is a written exam, so they'd want to set the stage just right."

"They generally have some sort of written exam," Jonas said. "But, it doesn't always take place at the start of the exams."

"For ours, it did," Sam added.

"But there's been other exams where they had some sort of team based task first and then they separated people out for a written exam," Jonas pointed out.

"So this could be some sort of task to creep through and kill off all of the academy students?" Gaara asked.

"I thought that you had meditated last night," Jack said with a groan.

"I did indeed lead Gaara through Kel'Noreem," Teal'c replied.

"She was particularly unsettled, however," Gaara said. "There's something n the air that she doesn't like."

"Oh, great, something in the air that a demon doesn't like," Jack grumbled. "In any case, try to keep a lid on it while we're taking the test. Unless we really do have to go through and kill kids, which then we'll all fail."

"I don't think that'll happen," Daniel pointed out. "Konoha has a reputation to uphold, after all."

"Well, that's something, at least," Jack said.

"We'll walk you up," George said. "Just remember, the test starts now."

"Right," Jack said. He stepped forward, leading the way into the building.

They made their way up the stairs, walking past all of the milling students. There was a large commotion in front of a room that was supposedly the room that the test was in. George and the other members of his team hung back, letting the other teams make the decision on where to go. That itself gave Jack a clue and he gave George a suspicious look as they went past the commotion up to another stairwell, where they bypassed a lot of students as they went up to the correct room.

There was a handful of Jounin waiting at the end of the corridor near the near the right room. "I guess we've got to leave you here," George said.

"Acting in the stead of Toshiro?" Jack asked.

"Well, someone has to," George said.

"Well, we'll be seeing you," Jack said. "It won't be the same without you, T."

"Indeed," Teal'c said, clasping hands with Jack.

"Will miss you big guy," Vala said, patting him on the shoulder as she passed him.

"Good luck," Janet said as they entered the room.

George waited until the door closed before walking down the hallway to where the Jounin were waiting, deciding to wait until the rush had gone down before going through the school building once more.

"Aren't you a little young to be Jounin instructors?" one of the Jounin waiting asked.

"We're only Chunin," George answered. "Their instructors are at the normal waiting place already."

"How interesting," the Jounin said, "that Chunin would be there to wish rookies luck instead of their instructors."

"We're close," Janet answered, "and they know that their sensei's wish them well."

"So, do you think that your teammates will make it through?" the silver haired Jounin asked, proving that he was very observant.

"Indeed," Teal'c said.

"As long as Team Tomo doesn't mess things up," George commented, being well experienced in how that team handled things.

"They haven't blown things up in a while," Janet said.

"Maybe they're due for it, though," George said.

"I am confident that they will pass," Teal'c said. "As long as Honda Akio keeps an eye on Yua."

"We'll, we shall see," George said, smiling at the looks on the Jounin teachers' faces.

Just then a group of kids ran up the stairs and presented papers to their Jounin teachers. "Good thing you all came," the silver haired Jounin said. "Since you can only take the exam if all three of your teammates take it with you."

"What, why didn't you tell that to us before?" the trio chorused, all of them clearly upset by the withheld information.

"You'd better get in there before they close the doors," George commented, glancing at the time.

"Off you go," the silver haired Jounin said as he herded his Genin team towards the doors.

The blond boy spluttered, but they were pushed through the doors. The other team followed afterwards and the doors slammed shut.

"And now the waiting game starts," George commented.

"Indeed," Teal'c said.

No other stragglers made up it from the commotion downstairs and, after a moment, George led his team back down the stairs. The Jounin watched them as they left the building, but George put it out of his mind. He and the rest of his team had some mischief to get up to while the others were taking their test.

* * *

Once they made it into the room, the Suna Genin ignored the rest of the Genin and headed up the stairs. It seemed as though it were a simple wish to be seated, but in reality they wanted to get closer to the Oto Genin. Not that they thought that the Oto Nin would give away anything, but it was still a way to see what the Oto Nin were like.

Jack didn't think much of them, to be honest; they really didn't seem to be pleasant people. Then again, he knew that some countries liked their ninjas to be bloodthirsty people. Of course, Jack could already tell that he would be more focused on the Oto Genin than the Konoha Genin when the time came to attack. So far the Konoha Nin didn't seem to be the type to stab people in the back.

The Oto Genin were that type of people and they showed that by launching themselves at the Konoha Genin. Jack put one foot on a chair to launch himself after the Oto Nin, but they seemed aware of the attack and fended it off. Then the proctor for the exam entered and ended the possibility of any more attacks, even warning them that no fights were allowed during the exam.

"Turn in your applications, take one of these numbered tags, and sit where the number tells you to. Then we will pass out the papers for the written exam," the proctor, Ibiki Morino, said. The Genin followed the instructions, some of them talking about the fact that it was a paper exam and others about the proctor's first words.

"Were they this strict in the exam that you guys took?" Jack softly asked Sam as they filed down to the front of the room.

"No," Sam said. "I have a feeling that the exams are completely new this time around."

"Makes sense, given how this is Konoha," Daniel said.

The Suna Genin finally reached the front of the room and picked out their numbers. They were spread out all throughout the room. Jack was seated in the very back, five seats away from where Gaara was seated in the corner. In the row ahead of them, more close to Gaara than Jack was Sam. In the next row, Cam and Jonas were just one seat apart from one another and Kankuro was further off from them. Daniel ended up sitting next to the blond kid that they had encountered during their first day at Konoha. That was the middle row and the next one down was where Vala was seated, by chance almost right in front of where Daniel was. Temari was closer to the front of the room, right in the middle of where the other two from that tumultuous meeting were seated.

"This first exam has a few important rules. I will not accept any questions, so listen carefully. First rule is that you all are given ten points at the start. The written exam consists of ten questions, and each one is worth one point. This test is a deduction based test. If you get one problem wrong, you will get one point deducted," Morino told them, writing the same thing on the board. "If you get three problems wrong, your points will be reduced to seven. Second rule, the pass-fail decision will be decided by your team's total points." The proctor dealt with an interruption, telling them that there was a reason for that. "Now that you know, let's move on to the next rule. If an examiner determines that you cheated or do something similar during the test, each action will cause you to lose two points. In other words, there will be people who will leave this test without their papers being graded. Those who try to cheat without thinking carefully will only hurt themselves. You all are trying to be Chunins, if you are a ninja, act like a first-rate one. Also, if anyone on the team gets a zero, everyone on that team will fail. The last problem will be given forty-five minutes after the exam begins. You have one hour for the exam. Begin!"

Jack stared at the man and wondered about the strange testing rules. "I've never had a test where you were allowed to cheat," he murmured to himself. "Though, I've had several tests where I've cheated. I bet Daniel's got this all figured out."

Jack carefully looked around the room. After a while he saw that they could only cheat three times before they were kicked out. He kind of figured that the proctors would be then looking for two sorts of things. Blatant cheating by glancing at other people's works or the flashy techniques that people used.

Jack looked down at the paper and actually read the test questions. "Gah, why does it have to be math," he grumbled to himself. He picked up his pencil and started to work out the problem. After all, it was a simple geometry problem; it wasn't like one had to be a geek in order to do them. But still, that's why he had Carter on his team!

Gaara barely listened to the rules; the voice in his head was calling out to something in the room. Besides, they said that cheating was allowed three times if they caught you. He wasn't planning on being caught. He had been working on his sand eye technique for years and had managed to get it down to only costing just one percent of his sand. Unnoticed, his sand drifted up to the ceiling one or two grains at a time. They formed together into a small eye, which then looked down at the other Genin. He quickly picked out the plants in the room and wrote down the answers that he saw there. He then left his sand eye going, watching the rest of the exam.

Sam didn't bother to try and cheat after she saw the questions on the paper. The history ones she didn't bother with, but the math ones she could solve in her sleep. She didn't even bother to write any of the equations out onto the paper as she solved it in her head and wrote down the words. She then turned the paper over and started working on a diagram that was giving her problems.

Cam grumbled at the questions, but started working out the math problem. He was more of an action guy, but he could still think back to the basics in stuff such as that. Besides, if nothing else than he could attempt to cheat his way through the other problems.

Jonas found that the test was very simple and he was able to recall the answers to almost all of the problems. Even the math problems were simple after what he worked on with the Naquariah reactors. Then again, he figured, not everyone had a near photographic memory.

Kankuro just sat there, waiting until the perfect moment to strike. He had the perfect plan for how to get his answers, but he wanted to allow the proctors to either relax and let more slip by or else wait until other test takers got nervous and started getting themselves failed by the droves.

Daniel felt sort of sorry for the blond sitting next to him, who was obviously having trouble getting a hold of the exam. The questions were too hard for him and he didn't seem to have caught all of the cheating references. Daniel admitted that the questions weren't the sort of thing that a normal Genin would know. It was high level math, which he knew after all of the years of working with Sam, and obscure history questions. Daniel knew that, of his group, he and Jonas were the only ones who would have gotten the references to the questions in the test. In fact, Daniel knew this stuff so well that he knew that the test makers had gone to great lengths in order to make it as hard as it could be.

Daniel lightly hummed to himself as he wrote down an essay on the fact that they got wrong. Montaro had been the Fire Country's sixth Daiyamo and he had been the one to go to war with the Daiyamo of Kumo over the immigration of tea.

Ahead of him, Vala was the only one who was trying to cheat. She had glanced through the test and dismissed most of the questions as useless. Of, sure, she probably could have answered at least one of them, but that wouldn't be the fun route. She knelt in her seat and peered over at Daniel's test paper. "Well, that's no help at all."

"That's the first warning for cheating," one of the proctors called out.

"But how can I be cheating if he isn't even writing about the questions on the exam?" Vala asked. She took his paper, handed him hers and moved to sit back down. "Here, use mine to continue your rant."

"It's an essay, actually," Daniel said. He calmly accepted the test paper and continued right where he left off.

"That's the second mark against you," the proctor told Vala. He didn't even bother to say anything to Daniel, since he hadn't been the one cheating. Vala just shrugged at the proctor and settled back in her chair, fiddling with a knife in her boredom.

Temari grasped the concept of the rules after thinking about it and used her wind techniques to get the answers that she needed. It was rather easy to cheat, she though and she was never called on it. She was just finishing up when her middle brother made his move. She shook her head slightly as he left with the excuse of needing the bathroom. "Cutting it kind of close," she murmured to herself. And indeed, her brother returned just before the instructor ended the exam.

"I will now give you the tenth question, since forty-five minutes have passed," Morino called out. "But there is one special rule for this last question. First you will choose if you wish to take this question or not. If you chose not to take it, your points will be reduced to zero. The other rule is that if you take it and get it wrong, you will lose the privilege to take the Chunin exam forever."

"What?" people exclaimed, all trying to explain just why that wasn't possible.

"This year, I am the rule, which is why I have given you an option to not take the question," the proctor said. "Now, let us begin. Those who will not take the question, raise your hand. After we confirm your numbers, we will have you leave."

There was silence before slowly people started to leave the room. Jack snickered quietly to himself, knowing that the instructor was trying to intimidate them. Of course, the instructor had nothing on any of Goa'ulds that tried to intimidate him. He was confident that none of his team members, including Team Toshiro, would bend under the pressure. After all, they had all received the same sort of trial before and hadn't given in then. And Team Baki wouldn't think much about that kind of tactics. Gaara was determined not to fail and therefore the rest of his siblings were as well.

A little less than half of the room had been weeded out between those who had been caught blatantly cheating and those who caved under the pressure. It was easy to see who would follow soon afterwards as some of the rookies started to bend. Finally, the blond kid from before stood up and slammed his hand against his desk.

"I don't care if I fail or not, you can't stop me from becoming the Hokage," the blond kid called out. "I'll become Hokage thanks to my own hard work and I won't let anything stop me!"

"I will ask one more time. This choice will impact your life, if you want to quit now is the chance." Morino said. He looked around and when no one else stood up he nodded his head. "Nice determination. Well then, for the first exam, everyone here passes."

"What?" several people shouted out, staring at the proctor in outrage.

"What about the tenth question?" the pink haired girl asked.

"There is no tenth question," the instructor said. "It was test to see who could stand up to the pressure. Being a ninja is not an easy thing and we need to know if you can stand up to the pressures of being tortured." The man pulled off his Hitai-ate to reveal that the scars on his face continued on every surface of his skull. Jack shuddered, remembering his very own torture sessions. In some ways he wasn't sure if being healed afterwards was better or worse, and then, of course, he had to add being deaged into the mix as well. "The point of the whole exam was to see how your information gathering and willpower held up, those who were willing to do anything to get the information and those who were willing to stick around when things got tough are those who pass onto the next exam."

The window smashed open and glass flew everywhere as a woman entered and pinned a banner onto the wall. Jack reached for his weapon, ready to attack whoever was attacking them, but the woman only posed under the banner. Jack then read it to find out that it was naming the woman in front of them: Anko Mitarashi.

"Oi, what's with this room?" Anko demanded. "This is way more than I expected."

"What were you thinking, entering like that?" the instructor demanded.

"I was thinking that I would have a lot less people in this class room," the woman replied. "Are you losing your edge?"

"Never mind that," the instructor grumbled out. "I suppose they're all yours."

"I'll cut them down to size," Anko said. "I'm Anko Mitarashi, the second examiner. The next exam will take place tomorrow; your Jounin instructors will know where to meet."

With that, the woman jumped back out of the window. The first instruction sighed. "You have a brief period of time before the exam starts; I suggest that you take advantage of it."

"Yes, we did it," Vala cheered, hopping up to sit on the top of Daniel's desk.

"All right, let's get moving," Jack said as he stood up and headed down the stairs. "After all, we've got to tell the others that we made it through this part."

The Suna group gathered together before trouping out the door. The rest of the room emptied out, until the examiner was the only one left. Ibiki went through the room and picked up all of the left over exams.

"Well, this looks like a bit of a mess," Kakashi commented.

Ibiki looked over to find the silver haired Jounin perched on the broken window sill. "What are you doing here? And what's wrong with the door?"

"What door?" Kakashi asked. He hopped down off of the window sill. "How did the exam go?"

"Got a stubborn batch of Genin this time," Ibiki said. "Helped out in part by one of yours."

"Naruto?" Kakashi asked.

"Naruto," Ibiki confirmed. "What do you want, Kakashi?"

"I met some people that got me very curious, and I was wondering whether I could look at a couple of exams," Kakashi said.

"The Suna kids, right?" Ibiki asked. He set the papers down on the teacher's desk and started paging through them, picking out the essays that he wanted.

"You got something off of them, as well?" Kakashi asked.

"You know how the whole point of this exam was to cheat?" Ibiki asked.

"Yeah," Kakashi said.

"Some of them didn't even bother to cheat, they could answer some of the questions on their own," Ibiki said. "Granted, one of your Genin answered all of the questions, but you should see theirs."

Kakashi accepted the tests from Ibiki and quickly read through them. In most of the exams, the math questions were the ones that were answered, but a couple of the Sand Genin answered the historical questions. In fact, one of them had written an entire essay over two exam papers about one of the obscure facts that were chosen. "What happened here?" Kakashi asked as he held up the one paper where Akio Honda had been crossed out and Yua written in over it. It seemed like the beginning of the essay written on Akio's exam paper.

"Yua bluntly cheated," Ibiki answered. "She was seated in front of her teammate and she simply took his paper after he had reached the end of it."

"Well, that's one way of doing it," Kakashi said, blinking in surprise.

"They're unusual, but then it was your Genin who practically ruined the last question," Ibiki said, giving Kakashi a glare.

"Oh, would you look at the time?" Kakashi said, not looking at the clock at all. "I'd better get going; I don't want to be late." Kakashi jumped out of the window before Ibiki could stop him, the exam papers fluttering to the floor.

Ibiki grumbled to himself as he picked up the scattered papers. "Like he's ever on time."


	5. Fighting in the Forest of Death

A/N: The bit I was talking about in the last chapter was the 'immigration of tea.' Tea immigrating just cracks me up for some reason. Anyway, thanks for reading and reviewing!

* * *

Chapter 5: Fighting in the Forest of Death.

* * *

The next day, the Suna teams were escorted over to the entrance of Training Ground 44. Jack groaned when he saw the place that was also called the Forest of Death. "Trees. It just had to be trees."

"I'm sure that it's called the Forest of Death for something other than the trees," Daniel said.

"I don't know, those trees look like they could kill on their own," Vala replied.

"Well, it can't be worse than some of the places we've been to," Sam offered.

"All that's missing are the P-90s," Cam said, gripping his staff.

"At least we'll have the radios," Sam said. She tapped the one in her ear and grinned as they all reacted to the brief moment of static. "I've adjusted them so that there is no chance of their interfering with the radios here."

Jack checked his watch and then glanced at the people who had already started to gather. "We still have some time before the exam starts, so why don't we find a quiet spot to wait?"

"Over there," Vala said as she pointed at the trees opposite the Forest of Death. "Let's wander around first and meet up over there."

"Sounds like a plan," Jack said.

They split up, wandering through the area and doing a bit of reconnaissance as they made their way over to the meeting spot. Vala and Daniel took the longest to meet up at the trees and once there, she and Daniel scrambled up a tree to look around. Having notice that the two other Suna teams were going to a meeting spot, team Baki joined them to see what was going on.

"So, theories," Jack asked after they were all settled, wanting to hear his teams' thoughts before giving his own.

"They have scrolls in the tent, my guess would be that we need to deliver them," Sam answered with her own report.

"Too simple," Vala said as she dropped out of the tree. "Demon boy says that the scrolls have different colors, I bet they have a twist built into that."

"There are also several entrances into that training ground. I'm guessing that each team will be given their own entrance into the place." Jonas reported. "But, man, are there some scary things on the edge of that place."

"Just think of what goes on deep in there," Cam said with a whistle.

"So how do you suggest that we get back together once we're in there?" Jack asked.

"Don't worry about us," Temari said. "We'll make it through on our own." She led her team into the crowd of Genin. Gaara glanced back and gave Daniel a shrug.

"We do have the radios and I've been working on something like the Ancients Life tracker like Atlantis uses, so we should be able to find one another in there," Sam said. "We could also use the radios to tell ourselves apart in case any other teams try to impersonate us, as I understand they are likely to do. Even if they try to disguise themselves like us, they won't know about the radio and even if they appear to have a radio, if it's a genjutsu it won't work like the real radio."

"Sounds like a plan, but we'd better get a move on, kids," Jack said, starting to move to join the crowd of Genin when the proctor showed up. They joined the crowns, coming to a halt next to team Baki.

The proctor for the second exam, Mitarashi, explained that all teams would be given a scroll, either a heaven or an earth scroll, and they would have to take the other kind of scroll from another team and proceed to the tower in the center of the Forest of Death. While explaining the rules, the Proctor threw a Kunai at one of the Genin for questioning her and then sent them off to sign liability waivers before receiving their scrolls.

"One other thing, you're not allowed to open the scroll at all during this test, those who do so will die a very painful death," the proctor said with a grin.

Of the three Suna teams, Jack's team went into the tent first and accepted a heaven scroll, something that had Vala snickering as she hid it somewhere on her person. Jack and Daniel didn't look, but they knew her well enough first not to look as she hid the scroll and second to know that she didn't have it in any one of the normal places. She was too much of a thief to put it someplace where the regular thieves would look for it - like her weapons pouch - which made her the perfect person to carry it.

Team Tomo left the tent and were led over to one of the entrances into the training ground. On the way, Vala bumped into one of the team members of the silver haired kid who had been in the middle of the fuss at the start of the first exam. Despite the fact that Konoha Genin seemed to be the less violent of the Genin taking the exams, Jack still watched out for retaliation from the group that Vala bumped into. There were groups who would take exception for being bumped into, but Jack also had a pretty good idea of what else Vala did when she bumped into the group and he wondered when they would realize that their scroll was missing.

He leaned in to talk to her as they waited to be let into the training ground. "Really? And is it at least the scroll that we need?"

"No one said that the exam had to start when we entered the training ground and with the way the proctor acted, I have a feeling that they would say that the second exam started the moment we reached the grounds outside of the Forest of Death," Vala replied. "Besides, what kind of ninja doesn't notice something like that?"

"What are you guys talking about?" Daniel asked, peering over at them. The proctor that escorted them to the gate didn't seem to be paying attention to them at all, but this was probably the time where the teams spent their time planning and he was probably used to that over discussing thievery.

"We're coming up with our plan, Danny boy," Jack said. He threw an arm over Daniel's shoulders and drew him into the conference.

"Akio," Daniel corrected.

"Whatever," Jack said. "We're going to change our plans a bit, first checking out what sort of scroll we have and then either going ahead with our plan or heading straight to the tower."

"What do you mean? I thought we had a heaven scroll?" Daniel asked. He then caught on to what was going on and gave Vala a look.

"I couldn't help it, he had it in full sight when he reached into his weapons pouch and it is an earth scroll," Vala replied.

"So we're going to be heading straight to the tower after this, where we'll be setting up base for a while," Jack said.

"Setting up base? Shouldn't we be going into the tower and winning?" Vala asked.

"We need to be there in case any of the other teams need our help, and I doubt that they'd let us back into the Forest to help them," Jack said.

"Whereas they don't have any rules about helping out teams within the forest during the test," Vala said with a nod. "You know, if you didn't mind waiting for a bit, you could always wait around the tower and ambush the perfect team to take the scroll that you need. You'd need to pick a team who had a bit of trouble getting a scroll, but not so beaten down that they're determined to keep the scroll. But, they would be almost guaranteed to have the scroll that you need."

"The almost is in there because you pick pocketed the scroll off of that one team, isn't it?" Daniel asked with a sigh.

"You know, they don't have to be the only ones, if we find any other teams that are easy to get, we should get them," Vala said.

"I doubt that Sam or Cam would really go for that," Jack said.

"Yeah, they'd want to make their own way, especially after the way that they failed their previous exam," Daniel said.

"We'll keep it in mind just in case, though," Jack said. "As it's not that bad of a plan."

"It's almost time to let you through the gates," the proctor broke in.

"Get ready to run," Jack said as they all got into position. "Because we're off to see the Wizard."

"Now," the proctor said as the gates swung open.

Team Tomo darted off into the thick tangle of branches, taking to the trees and heading straight for the tower.

* * *

Sam, Cam, and Jonas waited until Team Baki went through the tents before they entered to turn in their waiver forums and receive their scrolls. They got an earth scroll and took a minute to figure out who would hold it.

"They're probably expecting Jonas to have it," Sam said, "or, barring that, for me to have it, so I think that Cam should hold it."

"It makes sense that a normal team would either guard the weakest member, who would be holding the scroll, or that they would give the scroll to the strongest fighter to defend it," Jonas said. "That is why I think that you should hold it, Sam."

"And if anyone tries to take it from you, they'll probably end up with an exploding device," Cam said as he nodded in agreement. He handed the scroll to her.

"Not all of my devices will explode if touched wrong," Sam said with a huff. But she still hid it away in her pack.

"And, to guard against the possibility of the scroll exploding, we'll pretend like Jonas has the scroll," Cam said as he reached into his pack and grabbed a blank scroll before handing it to Jonas

"I'm not very good at genjutsu, but I can do this," Jonas said as he accepted the scroll from Cam with a smile. He concentrated and the scroll shimmered before turning into a heaven scroll. He then stuffed the scroll back into his pack.

"Why a heaven scroll?" Sam asked as they made their way out of the tent.

"Because it's another layer of deception," Jonas said. "If we say that we have a heaven scroll, no one will be expecting an earth scroll. Vala taught me that."

"She's gone a bit too far back into her old ways," Cam said with a sigh. "But, if it means that we actually win this exam, I'm all for it."

"This isn't earth, so I suppose that we do have to act differently and I think that Vala's experience in a variety of worlds really did help us here," Jonas said. "After all, we've all had to adapt to living here and I think that even Teal'c and I found it harder to adjust than Vala did."

"At least we're all together," Sam said. "That's something at least."

"There is that," cam said. "It's always hard to adjust when you're all alone in a situation like that."

"At the very least we all know who we are," Jonas said with a shrug.

"Oh yes, that was never fun, being cut off from earth and thinking that you were someone else," Sam said.

"In any case, we should figure out how we want to play this," Cam said as they finally made it to the gate that they would enter through. He stared at the darkness of the forest of death as he started planning.

"We're going to have to go after someone with a heaven scroll," Sam said. "Which means that we need to find a team first."

"That's probably one of the biggest obstacles in this exam," Jonas said.

"But, lucky for us, I have this," Sam said as she pulled out a device. "The life signs detector I was talking about earlier."

Cam leaned back a little. "Are you sure it won't explode?"

"Of course it won't explode," Sam said, frowning at him.

"That's what you said about the gun the last time and remember what happened with that?" Cam pointed out.

"We would have won if you had just tossed it at the Genin instead of holding onto it," Sam said.

"Well excuse me for freaking out for the split second it took to explode," Cam replied.

"Come on, now," Jonas said, stepping into the middle of the two. "It's been six months since we failed the Chunin exams and we all know that Sam's gotten better with the technology in this world. Besides, even if the life signs detector explodes, it probably won't knock us out."

"Besides, I think I can calibrate this to pick up the Genin teams instead of any of the animals in there," Sam said. "So we don't try to ambush three tigers or anything like that."

"Can you make it so that we're at least aware of the animals in the area?" Cam asked. "Because I don't think I want to run into any of the animals that the instructor was talking about."

"Of course, but the other Genin teams will be in a different color from the animals so we can tell them apart," Sam said. She fiddled with the device for a second before tilting it to show it to Cam and Jonas. "See?"

"There are a lot of teams," Jonas said as he looked at the screen. He pointed to the red dots that circled all of the blue dots in the mass of blank space. "You can see each team at each gate and the groups still getting their scrolls."

"So, should we aim for the closest team and hope that they have the sort of scroll that we need?" Cam asked.

"That might be the best way, or we could even predict where they're going and set up a trap," Sam said.

"Do you have any stun guns that won't explode on us?" Cam asked. He grinned as a plan came to him.

"I have one set that's based partly on the Zat guns and part on the tasers that should work like they should," Sam said. "What are you planning?"

"We predict where the team is going to end up, wait for them, and then stun them as soon as they enter our ambush zone. Then we can find their scroll without having to fight them," Cam said.

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Jonas said.

"So, are we heading after the ones on our left or right?" Sam asked.

"Which way has less animals in it?" Cam asked.

Sam consulted the life signs detector. "To our left."

"Then we'll head to the left," Cam said.

"I'll figure out the angles," Sam said, already doing the calculations.

"Then you'll lead the way," Cam replied.

"Got it," Sam said.

"We're letting you guys loose in a second," the proctor spoke up. "You can go when the gates open."

"Get ready," Cam said as they tensed up.

The second the gates open, they took off, angling into the forest on their left. Sam led the way, keeping a careful eye on her life signs detector to see where the other team was going. They seemed to be taking a route almost straight into the forest, though they also seemed to be meandering to the right.

As they ran through the forest, making their way through the trees and bushes, their radios went off. It was a brief moment of static, the code that was agreed upon in order to keep the radios hidden from everyone.

"Team Toshiro here, over," Cam said in response.

"We're heading straight to the tower, over," Jack replied.

"Why are you heading straight to the tower? Over," Cam asked.

"Because we've already acquired the scroll that we needed, over," Jack replied.

"How'd you do that?" Cam demanded. "We've been watching things and there's no way that you'd be able to find a team this soon, over."

"Let's just say that we stumbled into it," Jack replied. "I just wish I could see that team's face when they discover that, over."

"Only your team," Cam said as he shook his head. "In any case, we've got our plan ready, so we'll meet you at the tower, over."

"Watch yourself, we've already seen how violent some of these people can be, over," Cam said.

"Like that whole fuss before the exams started," Jack said. "We'll see you there, over and out."

"Seems like returning to her old ways can be a help sometimes," Jonas said with a grin.

"Let's get this finished as fast as we can," Cam said. "We can't let them beat us too bad."

"Right," Sam said with a grin.

Cam put on an extra burst of speed and the others followed suit. Thanks to the life signs detector, they were able to make their way around all of the giant bugs and animals and avoid any fights with them as they made their way to where the one Genin team would show up. In about half an hour they made it to the point of the triangle where they would meet with the Genin team and they started getting ready to ambush them.

Even though they were not ones for trees, each of them still climbed up to the top of a tree to lie in wait for the Genin team. Whether they were traveling on ground or in the trees, Team Toshiro being in teams meant that they had the higher ground for the ambush. They switched over to their private channel to allow for Sam to tell them where the three team members would appear.

It only took just a little over a minute's wait until the three team members darted into the field. They were running on the ground and the shots lined up perfectly. In unison, Sam, Cam and Jonas shot the three Genin. Electricity shot out of the guns and hit the Genin, who jolted and fell over.

Sam, Cam, and Jonas darted down from the trees and hurried over to their captures. "Be careful, who knows what these guys carry," Cam said as they frisked them.

"Right," Sam replied.

"Found it," Jonas said as he pulled the scroll out of the weapons pouch of one of the Genin. He then replaced it with the genjutsu scroll. He grinned at the others as they started to leave. "The genjutsu won't last long, but it should hold it long enough for them to check their scrolls. In any case, it won't really harm anything if they do discover that it's fake, but it would be amusing if they didn't notice the genjutsu."

"You've really been spending too much time with Vala," Cam said with a sigh.

"Let's go join the others," Sam said before it could break into a banter session. She put on a burst of speed and the other two joined suit. This time they kept an eye on the life signs detector to be able to avoid every life sign, not wanting to lose either one of their scrolls.


	6. Three Days in the Tower and the Prelimin

A/N: Fun times. Thanks for reading and reviewing!

* * *

Chapter 6: Three Days in the Tower and the Preliminaries.

* * *

Team Tomo made it through the forest with only confronting a couple of giant insects on their way. They avoided any teams, especially since they were heading in almost a straight line through the forest instead of looking for any other teams. The tower standing in the middle of the forest looked empty, which made sense as Jack doubted that any team actually finished the exam before it started like they had done.

They settled done right in front of the tower to wait for the other Suna teams. Gaara had chilled down a lot, but he still managed to tear through any mission with ease, and Jack was sure that this time wasn't any different. Team Toshiro might take a little longer, but Jack was also confident in their abilities.

True to prediction, Team Baki showed up within an hour. Kankuro scowled when he saw them waiting. "How did you get here so fast? Do you even have your two scrolls?"

"Of course we do," Jack said. "We had a bit of a lucky streak."

"Extremely lucky," Vala said, preening over the compliment.

"So why haven't you gone inside the tower? You haven't finished until you've entered," Temari asked.

"Because we wanted to be available in case our help was needed," Jack said.

"Feh," Kankuro said. He shook his head. "That's the problem with you guys."

"Hey, I firmly believe that no man should be left behind," Jack said, standing up. "Besides, it's not against the rules to help each other out if you haven't finished yet."

"Though, we're waiting until they ask for our help so that they don't get sour at us," Vala chirped out. She bounced up and clapped Gaara on the shoulder. "Congratulations demon boy, your team is the first to make it through."

"I have half a mind to wait for you guys to enter because I don't like thinks handed to me," Kankuro grumbled. "But knowing you guys, you cheated somehow, and we won fairly, so we'll win ahead of you."

"It's not a race and while the way we won might have been just a bit shady, it wasn't cheating," Jack said. "Nice to see that you made it though."

"Thanks," Temari said. She shook her head. "If you're not inside by night time, I'm dragging you in myself, got it?"

"Got it," Jack said with a grin and a nod.

Temari nodded in reply and Team Baki entered into the tower, leaving team Tomo alone once more. Luckily, they didn't have to wait too long before Team Toshiro made it to the tower. Vala was the first to spot them and she jumped up to rush over to them.

"That was fast," Jack remarked as Team Toshiro made their way over to where Team Tomo was standing.

"This time the guns actually worked," Cam said.

"We ambushed a team, stunned them, and took their scroll," Sam said.

"And I left behind a genjutsu'd scroll, so we'll see if they realize it," Jonas said.

"Team Baki's already made it through the exam," Jack reported. "Shall we go join them?"

"Let's go before another team gets here," Cam said.

Jack led the way into the tower and then stopped to look around. "Now what?"

"There doesn't seem to be anyone to hand the scrolls to," Sam said as she also looked around.

"Well, we must have to do something with the scrolls," Cam said.

"That wall scroll has something to do with heaven and earth," Daniel pointed out. "It's the Chunin model for Konoha; I remember reading about it when I was preparing for the written test."

"Right, a person needs both heaven and earth, wisdom and physical strength in order to succeed," Jonas said.

"So, because there is nothing else to do, what do you say we open the scrolls up?" Jack suggested.

"I thought we weren't supposed to open them," Sam said.

"Well, normally the mission would be over at this point, anyway," Jack replied. "Besides, what harm could it do?"

"Sounds good to me," Cam said.

"Oh, good, I've been dying to read what they say," Vala said, the two scrolls that Team Tomo possessed appearing in her hands.

Sam pulled out the scroll that she had and Jonas pulled out the scroll that he had taken from the Genin team that they had ambushed.

"We'll go first," Jack said as he took one of the scrolls from Vala. He nodded towards her and together they opened the scrolls.

There was a pouf of smoke and the proctor that had escorted them to the gate appeared. He looked faintly surprised at the summon. "It's only been seven hours since the exam started and you're through already?"

"We're good at what we do," Jack said. It was very true, after all. "So I take it that we passed?"

"Yes, you did. Here in Konoha we think it very important for Chunin to know the tributes of both heaven and earth," the proctor said.

"Wisdom and physical strength, right, Akio," Jack said, grinning at the expression on Daniel's face.

"That's right," Daniel replied.

"Very good. In any case, you can't leave this tower in the next few days, but there are supplies and rooms to sleep in upstairs. We ask that you do not leave the tower's property during those three days and that you do not fight with any teams that make it through this part of the exam," the proctor said. He turned to team Toshiro. "You may wish to activate your scrolls soon, as I am only allowed to record down the team assigned to me."

"We'll do that," Cam said. He nodded towards the other two members of his team. "On three?"

"Right," Sam said. "One, two, three."

With that, they opened up the scrolls. There was another pouf of smoke and the proctor that had escorted them to the gate appeared. He also seemed to be surprised at their time in making it through the exam and he gave them almost the same speech as the proctor gave Team Tomo.

Afterwards, both of the proctors left and the two SG teams wandered up the stairs to go find team Baki. They found the siblings in one of the rooms upstairs and they entered to greet them.

"I was just about ready to go out to drag you in," Temari said.

"Well, look who also managed to get through super early," Jack said as he motioned towards team Toshiro.

"How'd you do that? Did you steal a scroll like these guys did?" Kankuro asked.

"You do know that the whole point of this test is to steal a scroll from another team, right?" Jack asked.

"From a team within the forest," Kankuro replied. "Not from picking their pockets."

"Hey, we just got an early start on things is all," Jack said. "Besides, it's not like the way you guys do things is any better. A swift attack is just about the same as pick pocketing and this way we might have some entertainment later on."

"You don't think the team will notice that they're missing a scroll?" Temari asked.

Jack shrugged. "This is Konoha we're talking about, and it seems like half of them are just rookies."

"You know, some people would consider us to be rookies," Daniel pointed out.

"Yeah, but we have more experience than they do," Jack said as he waved it off. "Besides, we could have done it last year if they had let us."

"Probably a good thing that we didn't," Daniel said. "Because this time we can take it at a neutral spot."

"Well, it won't be neutral for much longer," Jack said with a frown.

"Don't let their appearance fool you, Konoha really isn't as simple as it seems," Temari said. "Yes, their Genin seem to be really foolish and some of their Jounin aren't much better, but Konoha has some steel hidden away. Did you know that Orochimaru originally came from Konoha?"

"Why's he attacking it now, then?" Jack asked.

"They kicked him out when they discovered some experiments on people that he was doing, but they didn't discover that for a few years after it started happening," Temari said. "And have you heard about the massacre that happened only a few years ago?"

"Where did you hear about all of this?" cam asked.

"My information network is quite good, I'll have you know," Temari said. "Vala's built up a pretty good one, but most of her network has been a part of mine for years. And I have a longer reach than she does. I can give you all of the information that I have and then you can make your own decision."

"I'd like that, thanks," Jack said. He frowned as the situation caught up with him. For a while he had just been focusing only on the exams. Yes, he had observed some of the things, but for the most part he had to pay attention only to the exam in order to make it through it. Now he had three days to think about things, but at least he would get more information. In the end, it might be a good thing to attack Konoha, but he still felt like Konoha was less of an enemy compared to the Goa'uld or the Ori. He didn't even feel like it was the same as the war on Iraq that was happening on Earth although it could just be that he was biased. He understood Earth politics a lot better than he did the politics of this world. This was understandable, given how it had only been a few years since they had come to this world and they looked like kids, besides.

"Earth to Jack," Daniel said, breaking into Jack's thoughts.

"Yeah," Jack replied, before turning to Temari. "A massacre?"

"A whole clan was almost wiped out by one of their own members, the guy who committed the massacre and his younger brother are the only survivors," Temari said. "That was a while ago, but it certainly didn't give off a good impression on the other hidden villages. Of course, there are plenty of villages that are worse than Konoha."

"So, why would your father want to attack Konoha?" Jack asked. "I mean, it's not like Konoha is particularly close to Suna."

"If we manage to strike Konoha, we'll become pretty famous for managing to win against them," Temari said. "Of course, I'm not totally sure why Father has decided to strike now, although the Chunin exams are a good time for it."

"A good time? When children are fighting," Jack grumbled. He sighed. "So what else should we know about Konoha?"

"Almost all of their Jounin are insane," Temari said before going into the detail on that and more involving Konoha. Learning about Konoha and training was how they spent the rest of the three days that they had before the exam truly ended.

Finally, the last day came when the last of the contestants came trickling in. Those who made it through the deadly forest were gathered up and brought to a huge arena, where they were congratulated and then informed that they were going to be fighting in a preliminary match up.

"Since there are so many of you, twenty-one people and twice as much as we had expected, you will have to fight based on a random selection," the proctor announced in between coughing fits. "As there are an odd number of Genin, one of you will randomly be given a bye and allowed to go on to the next round without fighting anyone. And now we will start our first match." The device on one of the wall activated and two names were shown. "Sasuke Uchiha versus Makoto Taji."

With that, the arena was vacated and the first match started. It was a rather unfortunate pairing for Jonas, as every genjutsu he tried was useless against his opponent's Sharingan eyes, which allowed the user to see through illusions and predict attacks. Jonas came close to winning, however, when he pulled out Team Toshiro's signature stun guns and fired a shot at Sasuke. The energy bolt just missed the Konoha Genin as Sasuke dodged and then attacked. Jonas was knocked out and Sasuke was declared the winner.

Jonas was carried off the stage and Sasuke disappeared with his Jounin teacher in the same direction. Once the arena was cleared, the device started up again and another pair of names was shown. "Sora Taji vs. Zaku Abumi, please come down to the arena," the proctor said.

"Good luck, Sam," Jack said as she left the group and he was chorused by the rest of the teams.

Sam patted her weapons pouch and grinned at them before heading down to the arena. It looked like her opponent had a rough time in the Forest of Death, as one of his arms was bound to his chest. Still, the fight was difficult, as he used sound waves to attack. Sam fought with Kunai for the first half of the battle, dodging the sonic blasts and gauging Zaku's abilities. During the second half of the battle, Zaku surprised her by revealing that he could also use his second arm. It was just after this, however, that Sam pulled out her stun gun and fired a shot at Zaku while dodging one of his sonic blasts. The energy bolt hit one of his arms and he cried out as they started to overload from the electricity. He collapsed and Sam was declared the winner of the battle.

Zaku was escorted off in a stretcher while Sam went back up the bleachers to join what was left of her team. The device activated and pulled up two more names. "Kankuro of the Sand and Akio Honda, would you two please join us down here."

"Well, it could be worse, I could be fighting Yua or Gaara," Kankuro muttered as he and Daniel left the balconies.

"Let's have a good battle," Daniel said when they reached the arena.

"Sure, whatever," Kankuro replied.

Daniel darted forward the second the match started, attacking with Kunai while Kankuro fought with his fists. The battle raged on in earnest, with Kankuro taking out his poisonous weapons and Daniel countering with genjutsu. Finally, Daniel managed to slap a couple of seals onto Kankuro and the boy slumped over. The Proctor was about to announce the winner when it was revealed that the defeated Genin was a puppet and the real Kankuro had been bound to the back of the puppet. The fight resumed, the puppet lying forgotten, until Daniel got in a hit and Kankuro was knocked unconscious.

Daniel was declared the winner and Kankuro and his puppet were taken away to the infirmary. The fourth match was between two of the Konoha Genin, which quickly dissolved into a slapping match between the two girls. The match continued to be a letdown as the two girls ended up knocking one another out, leaving the proctor to announce that none of them passed on to the next exam.

The fifth match had Temari fighting against another one of the Konoha Genin. It was a good match up for Temari and she easily defeated the weapons throwing Genin using her wind techniques. Temari was declared the winner and the next match was announced: one of the Konoha Genin against one of the Oto Genin. This turned out to be a better match, as the Konoha used a jutsu to control the Oto nin through shadows and knocked her out by having her hit her head on the wall while dodging a shuriken. Shikamaru Nara, the winner of the match, headed back up to the balconies and the device activated once more.

"So, it's that kid, huh," Cam said as the machine spit out the next two names. Shou Honda vs. Naruto Uzumaki. He watched as the cheerful blond kid talked loudly with his friends before heading over to the stairs. Cam gave the kid a head start before walking down after him.

The fight against the two went on for a while. Naruto seemed to be inexperienced in terms of fighting, especially against staff fighting. But, at the same time, Cam was having a hard time actually landing an attack on the Genin. Naruto was hard to pin down and was able to dodge Cam's strikes. Even when Cam landed an attack on Naruto, it turned out that it was simply a clone and the fight would start again. The Konoha Genin also was good at disguising himself; he ended up disguising half of his clone force into images of Cam. This momentarily unsettled Cam and finally the amount of clones were able to overpower him and he was knocked out.

"Winner, Naruto Uzumaki," the proctor announced.

"Yes, I did it," Naruto called out as he left the arena. The medics came out and took Cam away to the infirmary.

The device activated and the next two names were produced. Neji Hyuuga against Yuuta Honda. Jack clapped Daniel on the shoulder before heading down to the arena. The pupil less, white eyed Genin followed after Jack and came to a halt across from him at the arena.

"It would be wise for you to simply give up now," the strange eyed Genin said and Jack narrowed his eyes at the tone. "You're fated to lose against me."

"Fate? I don't believe in fate," Jack replied. He readied his kusarigama, a chain and sickle, and pointed the blade at his opponent. "Besides, this is a simple fight, not a scientist convention."

With that taunt, Jack launched his attack, literally. He tossed the heavy end of his chain, just missing Hyuuga as the Genin dodged. Jack's words seemed to have annoyed his opponent, who attacked with earnest. At first Jack thought it was simple taijutsu and he fended it off with his weapon, but he discovered the Hyuuga's trump card when the Genin managed to land a blow on Jack's arm. Jack cursed as his arm went numb and he leaped back, whipping his chain around as he did so.

"Do you see why you're fated to lose?" Hyuuga asked. "With my Byakugan I can see your chakra lines and I can disable them."

"Thanks for the banter," Jack called back as he took the time to catch his breath and shake off some of the numbness in his arm. "But all this means is that I can't use my ninjutsu, it doesn't affect my kenjutsu."

"We'll see about that," Hyuuga said. He dashed forward and attacked Jack, harshly driving him back until he managed to disarm him. Hyuuga then took a step back and smirked at Jack. "What do you say to that?"

"I've faced worse odds," Jack replied. "Remind me to tell you about the time I faced an Unus with no weapons and one friend."

Before Hyuuga could say anything, Jack made his move. He attacked Hyuuga relentlessly, punching and kicking and using all of the tricks that he had learned through decades of training in his past life. He managed to drive Hyuuga back, but the Genin also managed to land some hits on Jack. Jack continued to attack Hyuuga even with the damage caused to his arms by his chakra being cut off, forcing the Genin to keep the fight going.

"There is no way that you can beat me," Hyuuga sneered as he aimed a powerful jab at Jack's heart, chakra shining on his fingers. Jack stumbled back and then found himself across the arena from Hyuuga in the proctor's arms.

"I'm interceding; as it is obvious that Honda cannot continue at this pace, Hyuuga is declared to be the winner," the proctor said as he put Jack down.

Jack scowled. "I can continue, now that I know the idiot wants to kill me."

"One of the goals of the Chunin exams is not to cause permanent harm to our Genin, therefore I am putting a halt to this now," the proctor replied before breaking out into a coughing fit.

"Fine, fine," Jack said with a sigh. He allowed the medics to take him away, hearing the device start up once more. Just before he left the arena he saw that it was Gaara against the second to the last Konoha Genin: Rock Lee.

Just before Gaara went down to the arena, Daniel snagged his arm and reminded him to be careful about the damage to his opponent. Gaara nodded, giving Daniel half a smile before heading down to the arena. Rock Lee turned out to be a surprisingly strong opponent, capable of fighting the powerhouse that was Gaara. He had some technique that multiplied his strength and he was the first one ever to break through Gaara's sand shield that was thought to be impenetrable. Even though Gaara was badly beaten, he was able to catch Lee with his sand and he came close to crushing him to death. Daniel called out to him at the same time that the Genin's teacher rescued him from the sand. Lee was carried off on a stretcher and Gaara was declared to be the winner of the fight.

"The last match is between Chouji Akimichi and Dosu Kinuta, which means that Yua from Team Tomo has been given a bye," the proctor announced after the device had made its selection.

"Lucky," Vala called out as she struck a pose and Daniel shook his head.

"It figures that you were the one who managed to get the bye," Daniel said.

"I hope this match finishes soon so that we can get out of here," Vala said, leaning over the balcony to look down at the arena where the last Konoha Genin faced off against the last Oto Genin. She exclaimed as the Konoha Genin puffed out in size until he looked like a giant ball, which he tried to mow the Oto Genin with. But, the Oto Genin easily retaliated with a technique that used sound waves like a drill. The Konoha Genin was knocked out and the Oto Genin was declared to be the winner.

With that, the preliminaries ended and the proctor announced the ten people who were going to be participating in the finals of the Chunin exam: Sasuke Uchiha, Sora Taji, Akio Honda, Temari, Shikamaru Nara, Naruto Uzumaki, Neji Hyuuga, Gaara, Dosu Kinuta, and Yua. "You all have a month to prepare for the finals, to allow you time to heal from the exam up to this point and to allow you to learn some new techniques," the proctor told them. He held up a lottery box. "And now is the time to pick out who your opponent is. Come forward and take a number."

The Genin each took a number and the proctor told them how they matched up. Naruto Uzumaki against Neji Hyuuga, Gaara against Sasuke Uchiha, Daniel against Sam, Temari against Shikamaru Nara, and Yua against Dosu.

"And that concludes the preliminaries," the Proctor announced before dismissing them all.


End file.
